Temperature hits 100 in Alamo City

From staff and wire reports :
June 28, 2013

Five-year-old Omar Segovia tries to stay cool by jumping into the San Pedro Park pool as temperatures neared the century mark on Thursday, June 27, 2013. MARVIN PFEIFFER/ mpfeiffer@express-news.net

Photo By MARVIN PFEIFFER/Marvin Pfeiffer/ Express-News

Aaron Garza (8, from left), Juan Orozco (12) and Nicolus Ramos (8) try to stay cool by jumping into the San Pedro Park pool as temperatures neared the century mark on Thursday, June 27, 2013. MARVIN PFEIFFER/ mpfeiffer@express-news.net

Photo By MARVIN PFEIFFER/Marvin Pfeiffer/ Express-News

San Antonians tried to stay cool at the San Pedro Park pool as temperatures neared the century mark on Thursday, June 27, 2013. MARVIN PFEIFFER/ mpfeiffer@express-news.net

Photo By MARVIN PFEIFFER/Marvin Pfeiffer/ Express-News

San Antonians tried to stay cool at the San Pedro Park pool as temperatures neared the century mark on Thursday, June 27, 2013. MARVIN PFEIFFER/ mpfeiffer@express-news.net

Photo By MARVIN PFEIFFER/Marvin Pfeiffer/ Express-News

San Antonians tried to stay cool at the San Pedro Park pool as temperatures neared the century mark on Thursday, June 27, 2013. MARVIN PFEIFFER/ mpfeiffer@express-news.net

Photo By Mike Fisher

A high pressure system above the Southwest is driving up temperatures throughout the region.

The temperature Thursday reached 100 degrees in San Antonio for the first time this year, but it could have been worse.

A high-pressure system that usually parks over Texas this time of the year is hanging instead over the West, where weekend highs will be off the charts.

Death Valley's forecast could reach 129 degrees, just shy of the world-record high of 134 logged there in California on July 10, 1913.

The National Weather Service called for highs of 118 in Phoenix and 117 in Las Vegas on Sunday — a mark reached only twice in Sin City.

"It's brutal out there," said Leslie Carmine, spokeswoman for Catholic Charities, which runs a daytime shelter in Las Vegas to draw homeless people out of the heat and equip them with sunscreen and bottled water.

Similar highs are expected Friday and Saturday, the National Weather Service said. But without the high pressure to get in the way, cooler weather will reach the area this weekend, dropping the temperature to the low 90s.

"We think this heat's going to continue until Saturday," said Cory Van Pelt, a forecaster with the NWS.

Van Pelt said the high pressure system will break in the coming days and that local temperatures will come back down to more normal ranges starting Sunday, with highs around 93 or 94 degrees. Some rain could also appear next week, he said.

Thursday, San Antonians looked for ways to escape the heat.

Marie Gutierrez, 49, headed to San Pedro Springs Park, a popular destination with its swimming pool surrounded by shade-providing trees.

While the pool was crowded, the sun-baked courts at the nearby McFarlin Tennis Center stood empty.

Gutierrez and other people at the pool noted how usually San Antonio sees triple-digit heat earlier in the year, not that they were complaining.

At the San Antonio Museum of Art, there were plenty of tourists coming through and plenty of bottles of water being sold at the gift shop.

"Everybody comes in looking flushed," said Allis Ozornia, 28, who works at the museum.

While the Southwest boasts the most shocking temperatures, the heat wave is driving up the mercury all over the West.

Western Washington, better known for rainy coffee shop weather, should break the 90s early next week, according to the weather service.

Southern Utah is forecast to reach higher than 110 degrees, and northern Utah is also expected to see triple digits.

The heat wave is "a huge one," National Weather Service specialist Stuart Seto said. "We haven't seen one like this for several years, probably (since) the mid- to late 2000s."

The system's high pressure causes air to sink and warm, drawing down humidity.

"As the air warms, it can hold more moisture, and so what that does is take out the clouds," Seto said.

At low-lying Lake Mead, which straddles the Arizona-Nevada border and is anticipating 120 degrees this weekend, rangers are positioned at trailheads to discourage visitors from hiking. Earlier in June, Boy Scouts hiking in the Colorado River canyon fell prey to soaring heat.

Four teenagers and an adult had to be rescued, and a 69-year-old Scout leader died.

Staff writer Drew Joseph and the Associated Press contributed to this report.